NO EXCUSES

12.17.12

Don’t Delay – Act on Guns

No more excuses – it’s time to tighten gun regulations, writes John Avlon.

It happened in the safest sort of neighborhood. If there’s anywhere in America where children should feel like there children are always secure, it’s a place like Newtown, Connecticut, I write in my weekend column for The Telegraph. The time for politicians to make excuses for America’s epidemic violence came to an end in the halls of Sandy Hook Elementary School, as 20 children and six adults faced a young man armed with assault weapons:

"America has become almost numb to gun violence in recent years, despite an escalating body count.

"More than 200 people have been murdered in mass shootings in the last five years alone – and that's on top of the 10,000 people killed by guns here each year.

"Earlier this week, a 22-year old opened fire in an Oregon shopping mall and killed two people. Television coverage dissipated by the next morning.

"But the unusual cruelty of this mass killing should shake the cold certainty of the most hardened guns rights advocate. Kindergartners are not supposed to be gunned down at school."

It shouldn’t have happened in Newtown. It can’t happen again. It’s time for a new era when it comes to debate around guns in America.